ESA’s Prospect mission is a key stepping stone on our journey back to the Moon and beyond.
Prospect has a suite of instruments that will drill beneath the surface of the Moon’s polar regions, extract samples, and analyse them to search for volatiles such as water ice. Volatiles are potential sources of water, oxygen, and fuel for future explorers.
The package combines a drilling and sampling system (ProSEED) with a miniaturised laboratory (ProSPA) to extract the cold-trapped volatiles and determine their origin and abundance.
The mini lab will also test in-situ resource utilisation, such as oxygen extraction from lunar regolith – the layer of loose dust and rock on the Moon’s surface.
Prospect operations will take place during the course of one lunar day, over about 10 Earth days.
Prospect will reach the lunar surface with the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on the IM-4 mission, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, under an ESA–NASA agreement.
Prospect stands for Package for Resource Observation, in-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Characterisation & Testing.
More information: www.esa.int/prospect